Children's brains and adults share the same 4 core networks, but children have more highly locallized brain connectivity whereas adult brains show more long range connectivity with significant functional effects, moving toward a more distributed model. But even in the children, there were still enough long distance connections that the "small world" model still seemed to apply.
Quote:
"Instead of having networks made of brain regions that are distant from each other but functionally linked, most of the tightest connections in a child's brain are between brain regions that are physically close to each other.
...clearly shows a switch from localized networks based on physical proximity to long-distance networks centered on functionality.
...Scientists already knew that children had many fewer long-distance links among brain regions than adults, but when they looked more closely they found there were enough of these links and nodes with multiple connections to establish small-world organization."
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Fair et al. Functional Brain Networks Develop from a “Local to Distributed†Organization. PLoS Computational Biology, 2009; 5 (5)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0515093228.htm